1987 Elections. Labour Government re-elected under David Lange. PALMER GOVERNMENT. David Lange later stood down and Geoffrey Palmer became Prime Minister with Helen Clarke as first woman Deputy Prime Minister.1990 Elections. MOORE GOVERNMENT. The Labour Government, with Michael Moore who had been Prime Minister for only a few weeks, was defeated. BOLGER GOVERNMENT. A National Government with Jim Bolger as Prime Minister was elected.
...Dame Cath Tizard became New Zealand's first woman Governor General....New Zealand celebrates its 150th birthday. ...Privatisation of major government enterprises continues as does world wide economic downturn.

1993 National Government with Jim Bolger as Prime Minister re-elected..

1996 National Government with Jim Bolger as Prime Minister re-elected.
...Unemployment reaches 200,000 and starts to drop.

1993 National Government re-elected.

1996Coalition Government under Prime Minister Jim Bolger and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters elected under proportional representation system ("MMP"). Unemployment down to six percent, Government in surplus for third year.

1998 Coalition Government. Jim Bolger was replaced by Jenny Shipley as Leader of the National Party, and thus became New Zealand's first woman Prime Minister.

1890 New Zealand Foundation for the Blind formed.1893 Ellen Dougherty became the World's first Registered Nurse. She later became Matron of Palmerston North Hospital.

1905. May. The first of the St. Helen's Hospitals opened in Wellington.1907 Plunket Society. The Royal; New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children founded by Sir Truby King and the first Karitane Hospital for the treatment of sick and malnourished babies established in Dunedin. This first hospital also served as a training school for Plunket nurses.

1913 Epidemics. Smallpox. The largest outbreak in New Zealand mainly in the Auckland Province lasted a year.

1918 Epidemics. November. A world wide influenza epidemic claimed 5,561 Europeans and an estimated 1,200 Maori lives in New Zealand, most of the casualties occurring in November.1918
...Six pm closing introduced to pubs and draught beer alcohol content reduced.

1925 Epidemics. A Polio epidemic occurred.

1947. Epidemic. November. A Polio epidemic occurred. North Island schools were closed until April 1948.

1987 New Zealand's first Heart Transplant operation was performed.

1990's Saw sweeping reforms - the establishment of CHE's and RHE's in the Hospital system.

oOo

Justice

1886 Police Force. Until this time New Zealand policed by the Armed Constabulary. This year saw the inception of the Police Force as we know it today.
1897 Law/Women. Ethel Benjamin became the first woman with a Law degree when she graduated from Otago University.

1942 Police/Women. Although training of women as police was authorised in 1939 the first policewoman were posted in 1942, three to Auckland and Wellington and two to Christchurch and Dunedin. The first woman was promoted to sergeant and the first woman detectives appointed in 1958. In 1972 the first woman police prosecutor appeared in court.

1957 Crime. 19 February. The last person to be hanged in New Zealand was Walter James Bolton convicted of poisoning his wife with arsenic. He protested his innocence to the end. In 1961 the Crimes Act abolished capital punishment. The first person hanged in New Zealand was the chief Maketu in February of 1842. The first European was a Royal Navy shipwright Joseph Burns convicted for the murder of Lt. Robert Snow, a member of Governor Hobson's staff, and his wife and baby daughter. In 1958 Public hangings were abolished.1970. Crime. June 22. The Crewe Murders. Arthur Allan Thomas was convicted at his trial in 1971. A second trial in 1973 again resulted in conviction. Further investigation led to a free pardon in 1979.

1985French secret service agents charged with manslaughter after bombing of Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour.